Each year, significant time and money are lost due to commercial aircraft accidents and incidents during ground operations, of which significant portions occur during taxiing maneuvers. During ground operations, aircraft share the taxiways with other aircraft, fuel vehicles, baggage carrying trains, mobile stairways and many other objects. Aircrafts often taxi to and/or from fixed buildings and other fixed objects. Should an aircraft collide with any of these objects, the aircraft must be repaired and recertified as capable of operation. The cost of repair and recertification, as well as the lost opportunity costs associated with the aircraft being unavailable for use can be very expensive.
Pilots are located in a central cockpit where they are well positioned to observe objects that are directly in front of the cabin of the aircraft. Wings extend laterally from the cabin in both directions. Some commercial and some military aircraft have large wingspans, and so the wings on these aircraft laterally extend a great distance from the cabin and are thus positioned behind and out of the field of view of the cabin. Some commercial and some military planes have engines that hang below the wings of the aircraft. Pilots, positioned in the cabin, can have difficulty knowing the risk of collisions between the wingtips and/or engines and other objects external to the aircraft. An aircraft optical guidance docking system would be useful to help a pilot align the aircraft with a parking location at a gate passenger boarding bridge, and to survey the area forward of the tail, wingtips and/or engines, to detect obstructions in a potential collision path, and to provide visual and audible alerts to the cockpit.